Alert the National Enquirer, The Globe, Star magazine and Us Weekly. Tom Cruise, Hollywood’s resident Mr. Nice Guy, has gone bad.
And so has his hair.
Cruise, a guy who danced his way into our collective consciousness in tighty whities in “Risky Business” and then earned our praise in films such as “Top Gun,” “Born on the Fourth of July,” “A Few Good Men,” “Jerry Maguire” and “Mission: Impossible,” will quite possibly have his good-guy card revoked in his latest effort.
“Collateral,” which opens Friday, features Cruise as Vincent, a cold-blooded hit man with platinum hair. Vincent has a hit list half a mile long and hijacks a cab driven by the mild-mannered Max (Jamie Foxx) in order to complete his mission. Joining Cruise and Foxx is Jada Pinkett Smith, who plays an FBI agent who has a chance encounter with Max earlier in the evening and an unpleasant one later with Vincent.
Directed by Michael Mann, “Collateral” marks the first time the 42-year-old Cruise has played the heavy, and he’s loving it. In fact, he was so giddy in a recent interview with reporters that he teased Mann about dissing him for the title role in Ali and encouraged his new best buddy Foxx to sing a few bars of Lionel Richie’s “Hello.”
The burning question, however, remained: What’s up with this sudden journey into never-been land?
“Every time I go out, I choose something that I feel is challenging for myself, whether it’s something that I’m producing or acting,” Cruise said. “That’s what really gets me excited. It’s always been that way for me. This is a character I haven’t played before, and I just thought it was a dynamic role, and I wanted to play it. He was a cool character.”
What’s also cool is the chemistry between Cruise and Foxx. Mann, who said he loves to “cast against type,” knew the actors were perfectly suited for each other the first time he saw them in his viewfinder.
“Tom and I wanted to work together for a long time, so the idea of Tom playing a bad man–not the G-rated, derived villain, but somebody who resonates with the real world–that became a prospect that seemed like a really, really good idea.
“And Jamie is a guy people normally see as a comedic actor, even though he’s done some great dramatic stuff in the past. He came in and just nailed it immediately,” Mann said. “Their chemistry was instant.”
Although Cruise’s die-hard fans might be willing to accept their perennial hero as a villain, some might be less than excited about his new look. Throughout the film, it looks as though Cruise is having one long continuous bad hair day.
“Michael Mann came up with that look,” Cruise said. “It was cool. There was a lot of work that went into the color, the style of hair, the suit. It was fun.
“When I’m creating a role I’m not thinking of how will people accept me,” Cruise said.
One of the things Cruise–a gun-control advocate–did to prepare for this role was learn to shoot a real gun.
“I’ve never shot live rounds before,” Cruise said. “That gun is an extension of who [Vincent] is. … So I had to work to be competent with that gun.
“I got surprisingly competent with that gun. It was like shooting pool. I remember on ‘The Color of Money,’ I was shooting pool 12 hours a day, and I got really good.”
Cruise is skilled when it comes to his private life as well. It’s not that he won’t answer some of the more probing questions he’s asked–he’s too polite for that. But the Syracuse native does have a way of going off on these long, impassioned tangents that are often so far removed from the initial topic that eventually everything gets lost in translation.
Truth is–other than his highly publicized split from Nicole Kidman three years ago, his recent break-up with actress Penelope Cruz and his subsequent mysterious parting with longtime publicist Pat Kingsley–Cruise’s off-screen lifestyle is rather boring by Hollywood A-list standards.
Despite this bad-guy role, in real life Cruise is still a nice guy, according to his co-stars. Foxx was pleasantly surprised and honored when Cruise showed up at his birthday party in December.
“The cool part about it was he came to my world,” Foxx said. “I threw my party at [L.A. club] Sunset 9000, and we had elements in there–you know, some brothers with no Social Security numbers and all kinds of things. I told them Tom Cruise was coming and people would go, ‘Tom Cruise ain’t coming to your damn party, c’mon.’ And he walks in, and people were blown away by that.”
Adds Pinkett Smith: “He’s just real. Yes, he’s a big-time movie star, but we would sit and talk about politics, the war and just stuff going on in the world. He gets it. And he’s really into his kids, so we had that in common. They come before anything.”
Finding time to be a hands-on dad must be as, if not more, challenging than playing a hired assassin with funky hair. Cruise will spend much of this month promoting “Collateral.” He’s still in the process of interviewing directors for the third installment of “Mission: Impossible,” and he’s also staring in “The Few,” which is scheduled to start shooting sometime next year.
“I’ve been busy,” Cruise says. “I’ve just been busy hanging out with the kids and working on upcoming projects. I haven’t had a break yet, but I will. I’ll take the time. I haven’t gone on a vacation in like a year. But I’m having a good time. Life is actually good. It’s very, very good.”
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Cruise control
Tom Cruise has spent half his life as a Hollywood star, building a broad range of roles and scoring some of modern Hollywood’s biggest hits.
The highlights:
“Taps,” 1981
Breakout role as a psychotic teen in a rebellion at a military academy.
“Risky Business,” 1983
Establishes himself as a leading man playing a young guy who runs a bordello out of his home while his parents are away.
“Top Gun,” 1986
Shot to superstardom as a cocky Navy pilot dueling for glory with his comrades.
“Rain Man,” 1988
Brought out his darker side by playing a crass conniver who grows a heart when exposed to his autistic brother (Dustin Hoffman).
“Born on the Fourth of July,” 1989
Earned his first Academy Award nomination, playing a crippled Vietnam vet turned war protester.
“Days of Thunder,” 1990
Cruise and future wife Nicole Kidman co-starred in this racecar tale, then reteamed in 1992 for Ron Howard’s Irish-in-America drama “Far and Away.”
“A Few Good Men,” 1992
Rob Reiner’s film cast Cruise as a military lawyer opposite Jack Nicholson in a slick courtroom drama.
“Mission: Impossible,” 1996
Along with the sequel four years later, has become Cruise’s big action franchise. No. 3 is in the works.
“Jerry Maguire,” 1996
Brought his second Oscar nomination as a sports agent trying to rebuild his career with a single client.
“Eyes Wide Shut,” 1999
Stanley Kubrick’s final film brought Cruise and Kidman together on-screen again in a dark tale of marital infidelity.
“Magnolia,” 1999
Earned his third Oscar nomination as a self-help male-power guru who has a painful reunion with his dying father.
“Vanilla Sky,” 2001
Cruise plays a man whose life (and face) change drastically after a car crash. Met and fell in love with co-star Penelope Cruz; they broke up in March.
“Minority Report,” 2002
Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi thriller cast Cruise as a detective on the run from his own cop corps.
“The Last Samurai,” 2003
Plays a disillusioned American officer who travels to Japan to train 19th Century troops in modern warfare.
–ASSOCIATED PRESS
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